After the 2026 Winter Olympics, Figure Skating Will Never Be the Same

These athletes here have reminded a lot of people that Americans are good people. Americans are kind people. And Americans stand up for the little guy and they stand up for their communities and they speak out because those are rights that Americans are given.

You watch the news and see what the current administration is saying and doing and it’s really awful. It’s fucked-up shit. I don’t even think that what these people are saying is political. They’re talking about things that are happening in their own communities.

And some of them have faced backlash for speaking out. Amber Glenn said she got “a scary amount of hate/threats.” Vice President JD Vance and President Trump have responded to some of the athletes who’ve made comments. They seem to be putting themselves out there, and the echo chamber seems even louder than it was a few years ago.

One hundred percent. This is 100 times louder than it was during the first Trump administration. It sometimes feels scary to say something, because it feels like there might be repercussions. They’re targeting people, and they’re sending people away without due process. So it’s even more important to speak out now. It’s also scarier.

I don’t want to take too much of your time, but I do want to end on perhaps a lighter note. Have you been watching Heated Rivalry?

I have all the time in the world to talk about Heated Rivalry.

Then by all means, go ahead.

I wasn’t watching it when everybody was really into it at first. Finally, it was like maybe the second or third week it was out and I was like, “OK, now I have to watch it.” People really built up how smutty it was. I was like, “I’ve definitely seen this on a different Netflix show before.”

Right?

There was a lot of sex in the first few episodes. By the time we got to maybe the fourth or fifth episode, I understood why there was so much sex, because like you had to just know all the heat-of-the-moment stuff. Because that fifth episode was one of the best episodes of TV I’ve ever seen.

Yeah, it was really good.

With the kiss on the ice, and then as soon as I thought the episode was amazing, Ilya calls Shane and says, “I’m going to …”

“I’m coming to the cottage”!

That was when I was like, “Oh my God.” It’s just amazing. The performances were great. I think that’s why it transcended. I loved it.

And now we have a new group of fans getting into hockey.

Stuff like that is amazing for sports as long as the sport embraces kinds of shows, and it feels like they really want to. Sports really should be for everybody.